Current Waters: Nantucket Fishing Report

You should know right away that this isn’t the typical fishing report Current Waters.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am the Captain’s wife. I’m writing today because Carl should be asleep right now (Thursday evening). He has to get up at 2:30 a.m. to be ready for a 4 a.m. departure to the tuna grounds. Such is the life of a charter captain. But keep in mind, he won’t have read any of this before it goes to press, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Instead of an official fishing report, here are some things I have heard my husband say this week:

The bonito have been fun. We actually caught the biggest bonito I’ve ever seen this week.

Some really nice bluefish have been caught. It looks good for the tournament.

Initial albies have been caught but I haven’t heard much else from them the past few days.

There are at least some small tuna around now. There are some white marlin to play with too.

By this point in August, the captain is in the thick of it. Ten to 12 hours of fishing a day doesn’t indicate the actual amount of work our charter captains do. As Captain Carl says to his clients: your fishing trip starts from the first phone call. Getting to know clients, where they’re from, their fishing experience, if there are kids and what ages – it all goes into the weird fisherman brain algorithm to give the clients the best trip for the month and day they are aboard. His mind is always working on where the fish are based on data stored in his head about water temperatures, wind direction, time of year, and the all-important “feeling”. It’s the thrill of the hunt and finding new ground. Besides the actual fishing time, there is also the planning and booking, boat maintenance, getting gear together, gear repair, and promotion/advertising. Never mind the business management end and staffing (the mates).

There is never a dull (or idle) moment.

People sometimes ask me about the competition on the water – how is it among the different charters? No gossip here. People do this job, fishing and other jobs of the working waterfront, because they love it. There is something all of the charter captains share in their blood which instills a sort of comradery. Of course, there is some friendly competition among the various charter boats but the captains definitely work together on the water and help each other out. They talk on the radio and the phone, give each other intel, and watch out for each other when they’re offshore. We are a community after all and the working waterfront is one that takes care of its own.

And what about us wives and partners of the Captains? We must fish all the time, right? You know that old saying the “cobblers’ children have no shoes” or something like that. Well, our family loves to fish, but we rarely get to go on Topspin. Having grown up fishing a little bit in the lakes of California and then off of Cape Cod as a teen, I’m no stranger to fishing. I may be a bit rusty in going on my own, but I’m working on that.

Recently I had the honor of winning a brand new custom fishing rod from Fish Stix Nantucket by Jeff Allen. The rod was in honor of Jamie Topham, the Nantucket Firefighter who passed away last year. I didn’t know Jamie personally but I surely love the Topham family. Jamie was an avid fisherman so this prize (which I won in a raffle to benefit a scholarship fund named in his honor) is full of his fishing spirit. Bill Fisher Tackle donated the accompanying reel and line and they were super helpful in getting me started. Honestly, with this setup, I couldn’t go wrong.

I was determined that this rod would not sit idle. I wanted to honor Jamie’s memory and get out on the water to christen the rod myself. It was a foggy afternoon in early July and we had a hot tip about what was catching off the beach. We went to a spot along the south shore where the fog helped hide my nervousness about not having gone in a while. I had been fishing, but beach fishing with my own setup seemed intimidating to have an audience. Thanks to Captain Carl for helping me out and guiding me – that’s what Captains (and husbands) are for. I was told to cast just past the breaking waves which were actually pretty close in. I overcast several times, thinking I really had to launch it. Casting this rod was a dream and after getting the hang of it I gently put it right after the breaking waves and reeled in slowly. I was teased with a few bites – nibbles on the line that I couldn’t set. It was just enough to get my heart rate going and feed my competitive nature. I had to get a fish.

The great thing about beach fishing is that even when you’re with other people, everyone is separated by at least 50 feet. There is space enough to have some alone time, but still be within shouting distance. The lull of the waves, the warm water lapping at my feet – it was meditative. And I thought about Jamie’s family, and what he meant to them, and how I could maybe honor him in some small way. And how horrible I would feel if I couldn’t land a fish.

Right when you stop paying attention is when the fish bite (in my experience anyway). It took a full 20 minutes before I finally set the hook and started to reel in my fish. I yelled, “Fish on!” Carl talked me through the landing. Charlie, my son, took some video. And I was just laughing and smiling.

We caught a few more on my new rod and a few on Charlie’s. We decided to call it a day as the sun started to set and we got cold from being soaked and sandy. It was such a great start to the fishing season for me.

Now I’m using the rod for the August Blues tournament. Hopefully, I’ll be on the leaderboard this coming week! Even if not, it’s another great cause when the fishing community comes together for fun and fishing.

Next week, Captain Carl will be back with a tale or two to share from the past week of fishing.

Current Waters is presented by Topspin Fishing